1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera having a display screen (means) such as a liquid crystal display which can acquires, by image pickup, i.e., photography, image information expressing an object image and which can display the object image expressed by the image information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras each having a display screen such as a liquid crystal display which can be used as a viewfinder by acquiring image information expressing an object image by image pickup and by displaying the object image expressed by the image information in real time have been commercialized in large numbers.
Since a digital camera of this type is also used at night or at dark places, an illumination device for illuminating a display screen is frequently provided to improve visibility of an image displayed on the display screen.
However, in a case in which the surroundings are sufficiently bright, sufficient illumination can be obtained even without using the illumination device. Thus, when the illumination device is used in this case, power is wasted consumed.
In order to solve this problem, the following technique (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 2000-101878, 2000-305537, and the like) is known. That is, providing the illumination device for illuminating the display screen, the illumination device is used in only dark surroundings, so that the visibility when the camera is used at the dark place is improved, and power consumption when the camera is used in a non-dark place is reduced.
However, according to this technology, when a display screen is used as a viewfinder, an object which is relatively dark has low visibility even if the display screen is illuminated, and the display screen cannot be practically used due to the darkness of the object. In this case, with this technology, although the display screen cannot be used as a viewfinder, a power required by an illumination device or the display screen to display an object image is wastefully consumed.